Mextorf Fined, Sentenced to House Arrest

Former Superintendent Richard Mextorf. Photo provided by the State College school district.

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Former State College Area School District Superintendent Richard J. Mextorf, who resigned from his administrative post in early December more than two weeks after being charged with drunken driving, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor DUI charge Monday morning and was sentenced to 15 days of house arrest.

Mextorf also was fined $1,000, placed on probation for six months, will have his driving privileges suspended for one year upon notification from the state Department of Transportation, and will be prohibited from drinking alcohol or entering a licensed establishment while his probation is in effect, Clinton County District Attorney Michael Salisbury said Monday afternoon.

Mextorf will wear an ankle-bracelet monitor connected to the telephone system while he is confined to his home, Salisbury said.

The sentencing news was reported first online by the Centre Daily Times.

Although Mextorf had no prior criminal record, Salisbury said the circumstances surrounding his arrest combined to make him ineligible for accelerated rehabilitation disposition, or ARD, in which a charge — usually filed against a first-time offender — can be expunged from the defendant’s criminal record upon completion of the court-ordered program.

The circumstances that influenced Salisbury’s decision not to seek ARD for Mextorf included:

Mextorf’s blood-alcohol content of .316 percent, almost four times the legal limit of .08 percent for driving.

The time of Mextorf’s arrest (it was early on a weekday morning when, Salisbury said, school buses were on the highway).

That Mextorf’s vehicle struck at least one construction barrel and he did not stop at the scene.

Mextorf was arrested on Nov. 18 after the Clinton County Communications Center received a report of an erratic driver on U.S. Route 220 headed south. A state trooper activated his siren and followed Mextorf’s vehicle for about two miles, finally stopping it along state Route 64, according to the original criminal complaint.

Mextorf, a Penn State alumnus, became State College superintendent in July 2009, succeeding Patricia Best when she retired. He last was superintendent for the Loyalsock Township School District in Lycoming County.

"I am so sorry to have fallen short, and for letting everyone down in such dramatic fashion,” Mextorf wrote in an e-mail message at the time of his resignation. “I am unsure what the future will hold. At the present time, I am working with my support systems and focusing on getting better."

He has since been hired by the Grove City Area School District to replace the retiring superintendent beginning in the 2011-12 school year.

A message left for Mextorf's attorney was not immediately answered Monday afternoon.

Rich Kerstetter is managing editor of StateCollege.com. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SCeditorial or get news updates via Facebook at http://facebook.com/statecollegecom. Rich can be reached at [email protected] or at (814) 238-6201 Ext. 135.
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